This month, Pat Scales fires back on a principal who nixes the study of a novel with a Buddhist mother-character in a world religions program, a teacher who wants to label library books by reading-level, and a company contracted for book fairs that labels a graphic novel featuring a kiss between two boys as “Mature Content.”

This article was published in School Library Journal's February 2015 issue. Subscribe today and save up to 35% off the regular subscription rate.

A public librarian asks if merging her teen and adult collection will reduce the challenges to the YA literature collection; a school librarian writes about the superintendent’s restriction on teaching some of the classics listed on the Facts on Fiction website. SLJ censorship columnist, Pat Scales, provides answers to these matters and more.

This article was published in School Library Journal's September 2014 issue. Subscribe today and save up to 35% off the regular subscription rate.

Chair of the American Library Association’s Intellectual Freedom Committee Pat Scales responds to questions about book challenges, dystopian novels in elementary school, and the age-appropriateness of Bullying Prevention displays.

This article was published in School Library Journal's November 2013 issue. Subscribe today and save up to 35% off the regular subscription rate.

Chair of the American Library Association’s Intellectual Freedom Committee Pat Scales responds to questions about book challenges, summer reading lists, and boundaries for school library parent volunteers.

This article was published in School Library Journal's September 2013 issue. Subscribe today and save up to 35% off the regular subscription rate.

Pat Scales, chair of the American Library Association’s Intellectual Freedom Committee, answers readers’ questions about censorship. This month, Scales addresses what to do when your school has inflexible or strict Internet filters, including strategies for aiding students in completing research assignments and advice on instituting new policies for challenged materials.

As I was preparing a library card for a new student, she handed me a two-page list of books that her mother won’t allow her to read. Then later on, her mother called and told me she expected me to monitor what her daughter was reading. What should I do?

You need to tell the mother that it’s not your role to monitor students’ reading. If she has an issue with the titles that her daughter chooses, then she […]

In addition to reading your column, what’s the best way to keep up with news about censorship?

Start by checking out the American Library Association’s (ALA) Office for Intellectual Freedom (www.ala.org/offices/oif), which maintains a database of challenges to library materials. These challenges are reported in its Intellectual Freedom Newsletter ($50 a year), unless the person reporting the challenge asks ALA to keep the information confidential. Another helpful resource is Robert P. Doyle’s Banned Books: Challenging Our Freedom to Read […]

Parents who visit our library’s children’s room have told me that ereaders have encouraged their kids to read. My son is a struggling reader, and he was very excited when I bought him one. But then we found out that his reading teacher won’t allow her students to read ebooks—they can only read books from the school library. How do I handle this?

Our fourth and fifth graders (and a few third graders) have been asking for The Hunger Games. I love the novel, but it’s not in our elementary school’s library collection because it’s a YA book. I think my students would enjoy reading it when they’re a bit older. I need your advice.

The district just told us that we can’t use any upper-level Accelerated Reader (AR) books in our elementary school reading program because the topics may be too mature for our students. We think they’re censoring the program and our students will suffer.

I’d say the students are the winners. Maybe they can finally read books that interest them without being tested on everything they read. This doesn’t mean that you can’t have these books in the library. The students […]

Our new elementary school principal, who comes from a fairly conservative private school, doesn’t want our library to have any banned titles. He recently told me that he’d personally check our catalog to make sure that there weren’t any titles on the banned books list. Since our district doesn’t have a library coordinator, I feel like I don’t have an advocate. Fortunately, our district has a selection policy and reconsideration guidelines. What should I do?

Our community has had several unfortunate incidents of students involved in cyberbulling. I’d like to work with our middle schoolers on this issue. Some of our faculty members are supportive of my plans, but others feel that our students’ parents are responsible for teaching their kids appropriate online behavior. What’s your suggestion?

This is a hot topic that affects every community, and it’s important for students to know how to conduct themselves appropriately […]